"unable to parse audio file" and "OSStatus Error -208" !
 

Hello DUC:

While opening Pro Tools sessions in v8 that were created in v7.4, I ran into a show-stopping error: "Unable to parse audio file xxx". The session wouldn't open. I recovered the offending WAV file from the Retrospect archive, tried again, and then another file had the same error. Suspecting something deeper than a Pro Tools problem (ignore for now the 7.4>8 issue), I found that the Leopard Finder couldn't play these files, but many other files from the same session were fine. Quicktime Player told me that it couldn't open them because of "OSStatus Error -208". Barbabatch iTunes, and Izotope RX refused them too.

Now I was really worried, and was unable to dig up any useful information about these errors online (including a search here on the DUC). Only a snapshot Retrospect restore saved me. This is very scary data corruption.

Any ideas? Solutions? My sense is that if this happens and you're not backed up, you're hosed.


Thanks in advance for thoughts,

Nathaniel Reichman
www.nathanielreichman.com

MacPro 2.8Ghz 8-core, 6GB RAM, 10.5.6, Pro Tools LE 8.0.0cs2 with Complete Production Toolkit, Digi 002R, Blackmagic Intensity Pro, eSATA hotswap tower, Baby HUI, Soundminer 4, Waves Platinum 6, Audio Ease All-In, Melodyne, SoundToys, Izotope RX, GRM Tools, PSP, Retrospect...

Re: "unable to parse audio file" and "OSStatus Error -208" !
 

It's almost certainly data corruption, but what may have caused it is unclear, as there are so many possibilities. Given that the OS and other apps had problems playing the files I'd start with possible drive issues - drive failing, bad directories, bad blocks, etc.

If data corruption occurs, no matter what the application, if you're not backed up the, yes, you're hosed.

Re: "unable to parse audio file" and "OSStatus Error -208" !
 

Hi I recently ran into the same problem. After a typical buffer error, the session became unplayable and I did the usual: trash prefs & databases and reboot. the session opened but all audiofiles were corrupt. Pure random, fullscale noise on every track. Quicktime gave error "OSStatus Error -208" on all files on the disk. 300 GB worth of data (most of it backed up). Movies would not open either. After recovering from a quasi heart attack I decided to run Diskwarrior on the disk. Did the "Rebuild Directory Structure" option. During some agonic 5 minutes it found several errors and finally gave me the option to replace the damaged directory structure with the rebuilt one. Of course! Then I reopened the last session backup and ALL files were back !! Thank you diskwarrior!